


dorm rules

by liionne



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Domestic, Drabble Collection, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Slow Build, Starfleet Academy, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-25
Updated: 2014-07-25
Packaged: 2018-02-10 10:31:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2021661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liionne/pseuds/liionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This list may be modified at the first signer's discretion and for any reason. The second signer will abide by every single rule if he wants to keep pretending he lives here."</p>
            </blockquote>





	dorm rules

**Author's Note:**

> this has been niggling at me ever since i saw it. this little drabble collection thing is based off[this post here](http://star-twxrking.tumblr.com/post/92861594263/leighway-because-you-know-mccoys-md-pretty) which i think is absolutely fabulous.
> 
> i apologise for any spelling/grammar mistakes, and i'm sorry that this one isn't too great. they're going to get better!

It's Day 7 of being at Starfleet Academy, and Day 7 of living with Jim Kirk. Honestly, Leonard's not sure which one is worse. It's like picking his favourite between gonorrhea and syphilis. They're both pretty bad, and neither one is a lesser evil.

(He's not even supposed to be living with Jim. Jim has his own dorm on campus with a guy called Gary Mitchell, but because Leonard has a room all to himself, Jim has commandeered it, and claimed half of it as his own. Leonard would kick him out, but Jim is something of a leech.)

He forms that opinion when he wakes up on that seventh day at noon, because he had his first graveyard shift at Starfleet medical and no lectures until two, and finds that the coffee is gone.

Or rather, Jim has not replaced the coffee.

Leonard squints at the empty pot. He could have sworn that when he had came in from his shift last night (well, came in, dragged himself in, same difference) there had been coffee in that pot. He hadn't had any, because he didn't have time to get out of his scrubs let alone get himself a cup of coffee, and all he wanted was sleep, but he knows there was definitely some in there.

He sighs, and sets about making some more.

He scolds Jim when he sees him, and tells him to be sure to replace the coffee he drinks, _especially_ if he empties the pot. To this, Jim pinky-swears. And you can never go back on a pinky swear.

For a while, things are going well. There's always coffee in the pot in a morning, though they usually get up at the same time now. Honestly, Leonard's getting used to have this kid as his shadow. He's always at his elbow, always clinging to him in some way, a hand on his arm or an arm around his shoulders or something. Always touching him. And usually they do pretty much everything together, because, despite how Jim is quickly making friends from xenolinguistics and the engineering departments, and Leonard is making friends with people on the medical track, they're still the only two here who aren't necessarily here because they want to be. They're not kid geniuses, they're nothing special. They're rejects.

And so they stick together.

The next midday start for Leonard isn't until a few three weeks later. He was hoping another graveyard shift would never occur, because, even though he was used to them, he detested them with a power so string it could've blow up the hospital an everyone in it. Not that he would do that. "Do no harm," and all that jazz.

He stretches, and rolls over, expecting to see a lump on the floor; Jim, in other words, because sometimes he sleeps on the floor and sometimes he sleeps on the couch but apparently he's taking a liking to the floor by Leonard's bed. But then he remembers that Jim had field first aid training and would be long gone by now, off to do something or other. That's fine with Leonard. He certainly doesn't mind having the dorm room to himself for a while.

He tosses and turns a little in bed, reluctant to get out of it but not sleepy anymore, and then he sighs. He's got to get up eventually.

He picks himself up and pads through to the kitchen, barefoot, in nothing but his scrub pants. When he removed the shirt he's not sure. He must have been functional enough to try to dress himself for bed at fuck o'clock this morning.

He scratches his stomach (which the hand-to-hand combat training and Jim's prodding is helping him to tone up again)and reaches for the coffee pot, to warm it up.

And he finds it empty.

The noise he makes is nothing short of a hiss. He glares, and he's suddenly very awake. Very awake indeed.

He's going to kill Jim Kirk.

He glances at the clock, because he knows he can make himself some coffee- or he could of, if he hadn't overslept by an hour. And then by rolling around in bed for half an hour, he now only has twenty minutes to get himself washed dressed, and ten minutes to run to his next lecture.

He doesn't have time for coffee.

He steps into their xenbiology lecture with a minute to spare, and takes his usual seat by Jim's side. Jim greets him with his usual cheery smile, but Leonard glares. Leonard gives him a glare with the heat of a thousand suns behind it. He narrows his eyes, and he glares right into Jim Kirk's soul.

Jim shuffles down a little in his seat, and he turns away.

It's the first time Leonard's ever seen him take notes.

Leonard may be washed, dressed and awake, but he's not happy. His hair is neatly combed, his cadet reds are pristine, but he's cranky. Cranky as hell. Because the caffeine doesn't wake him up as much as soften his already cantankerous demeanor, making him somewhat bearable to the rest of the world, apparently a fact that Jim Kirk just doesn't  
understand.

He marches Jim home by his earlobe. His honest to god earlobe. He sits him down at the kitchen table, and chews him out for a hell of a long time.

"It's just coffee, Bones." Jim says, head shaking, as if Leonard is an idiot.

"Shut the hell up!" Leonard barks. He's definitely cranky. "It's not just coffee! It's a part of my routine and you're _ruining_ it."

"You know, you would have been fine if _you_ hadn't overslept." Jim counters, looking down at his fingernails.

Leonard glares. "That's not the point."

"It's related to the point." Jim argues.

Leonard cannot argue back. So instead, he goes for a different move. He grabs an actual piece of paper - paper! - out of the kitchen drawer, and begins scribbling.

_DORM RULES_  
 _(that means you, Jim Kirk)_

_1\. Replace the coffee you drink, jackass. I shouldn't have to say that._

He pins it to the fridge with a satisfactory smirk.

"What the hell is this?" Jim demands.

"Can't you read? 's the dorm rules." Leonard replies. "Every time you pick up some dumbass habit like _this_ -" He gestures to the pot. "-'m gonna right it down on the Dorm Rules list. And when it's done, I'm gonna get you to sign it. Call it a contract, if you're gonna pretend you keep living here."

"What's in it for me?" Jim asks. "If I do all that stuff for you?"

"You do all that stuff for me," Leonard says, "And I will let you live here. And won't _kill_ you while you're sleeping."

Jim gulps; obviously Leonard's passive-aggressive tone and narrows eyes have had their desired effect.

"Sounds fair." He nods. Leonard nods back.

Maybe some Dorm Rules are just what they need.

**Author's Note:**

> i actually have two mckirk-related things to go into A Thousand Ways To Meet (maybe three, when I think about it) too, so keep your eyes peeled for those!


End file.
